Author's Note: I can't wait to see the next episode. I normally watch it before posting, but I'm going out with the wife tonight so I thought I'd post a bit early so everyone wouldn't have to wait. Enjoy yourselves!
Chapter 6.
"Is he awake yet?" Siesta asked timidly.
"That's the tenth time you've asked that question Siesta." Louise scolded the girl.
"You want me to take over holding his head?" Henrietta was asking.
"I've got it." Tabitha replied.
Louise looked around the large stone room they found themselves in. This didn't look like any dungeon she'd ever seen before. The stone pillars were chipped and the entire place look like it was carved from one solid piece of rock. Busted windows allowed in what little sunlight filtered through the over cast sky.
"As soon as Saito wakes up we need to find out where we are." Louise said seriously. "I don't think we're in Tristain anymore."
"Why not? All I see outside are trees, and a wooden fence." Siesta said joining her at the window.
"The sky. It was bright and sunny in Tristain this morning. The sky here is overcast and grey. I think someone teleported us during the ceremony." Louise reasoned.
"Do you think it was an attempt to get rid of Saito?" Henrietta asked worriedly. "I didn't think anyone would try to eliminate him this quickly or to go to such extremes."
"I don't know. We aren't in the palace, but if someone were trying to abduct one or both of you I think they would have been more careful about where we ended up. If that is the case we may need to get moving as quickly as possible. Whoever arranged for this might have guards nearby looking for us. We need to get Saito up and moving as quickly as..." Louise started turning from the window to see the limber Tabitha bent double to engage Saito in a fierce lip lock.
Three young women all glowered at the young princess when she finally surfaced. "It works in stories."
"That's where the princess is supposed to wake up." Siesta replied flatly. Saito showed no signs of rousing, so Louise couldn't really vent her anger and frustration on him this time so she let the matter drop.
"Besides it's supposed to be 'true love's first kiss'." Siesta lectured right before taking a turn at the unconscious swordsman.
"Hey, that's my husband." Henrietta complained after Siesta sat back up. Saito continued to remain blissfully unaware. "I should be the one to try."
Louise just sort of sighed and died a little more inside. Here they were in severe danger and these girls just kept going after Saito. Even when he was unconscious the boy made her angry. She had started to get used to Siesta doing it even before Saito cleared the air, but Henrietta and Tabitha were completely different subjects. Not like it was going to be a 'first kiss' for any of them either...
"Well, well, what have we here?" A menacing voice said as a strangely dressed man entered the room with a slender sword propped against his shoulder. "Looks like we found us some kids having a bit of fun haven't we fellas."
General grunts of agreement as a bunch of men filed into the room after their leader. They looked common, ugly, and the most terrifying sight Louise had ever seen. "Kiss harder Henrietta..."
"Who are you?" Louise spat at them as she got between them and her queen. "What do you want?"
The men all stopped and looked at each other in confusion. "Hey boss, you understand what she's saying?"
"What are they saying Louise? I don't recognize their language." Henrietta put in as well.
"What do you mean you don't recognize their language? I can understand them perfectly." Louise replied in confusion.
"They're saying their overjoyed that such strong handsome men as us found them and they're looking forward to some fun with us." Their leader sneered back at his companions.
"But they obviously don't understand me." Louise replied in certainty.
"Hey cutie, come here." The leader ordered.
"My kingdom for a wand." Louise muttered.
"MY kingdom for your wand." Henrietta agreed as the men began to loom closer.
"Looks like these little girls need to be taught a lesson in obedience." The leader said pulling out his weird looking sword and raising it.
Louise closed her eyes but willed herself not to move. She was going to protect Henrietta with her life and with her body if need be. The blow never came. Louise slowly opened her eyes to see Saito's back. Her familiar still had his head bowed as if still unconscious, but his arm was raised and he was holding the wrist of the swordsman aloft. The ruffian looked surprised, but Saito didn't even look up as he planted his fist in the man's stomach and then upwards into his chin.
The young swordsman deftly snatched the blade out of the air as his opponent fell to the floor and drove the blade into the stone next to his ear. As he knelt down over his fallen foe he looked up slightly into the eyes of the terrified bully. "I was waiting for her to try next."
With a jolt, Louise blushed heavily before her embarrassment began to give way to anger as realization dawned on her. She then planted a hard wallop across the back of Saito's skull. "You perverted dog, you mean you were awake for the first three?"
"Well, sort of, I woke up just before Tabitha kissed me." The boy sheepishly admitted.
Saito stood as the leader of the gang of bandits crawled swiftly backwards to the safety of superior numbers. He pushed one of his minions forward who was carrying a heavy looking metal pipe that he was using as a cudgel. The queen's champion quickly slashed at him severing the pipe in half and leaving the much larger man stunned at the sight. Saito casually walked over, reaching up to grab him by the throat, before tripping him so that he could drag him backwards out the door after a retreating band of compatriots who were quickly deciding it was better to be someplace else.
"I've had a really bad day." Saito said conversationally. "You girls wait here, I'm going to go look around outside and work off some frustration."
The four girls nodded dumbly as their protector headed out the door. Louise could hear the occasional scream for mercy as the band of would be attackers found themselves up against a legendary familiar.
"He looked so cool just now." Siesta gushed.
"Did any of you understand those men?" Louise asked.
"Not a word." The queen replied looking out the window to see if she could see the thrashing going on outside the building.
"I don't think those were guards sent to capture us." Siesta said joining her queen.
"These look like ruins." Tabitha noted.
"Maybe they were just bandits, and they were using this place as a hideout." Louise thought aloud. "If the teleportation spell went awry we could be anywhere."
"We should be thankful we didn't find ourselves under an ocean or mountain." Henrietta agreed. "For all we know that might have been the intent."
After a while, Saito came back with his clothing ripped and in tatters; his formal collar completely gone.
"Master, why did you do that?" Siesta scolded. "I worked really hard on that collar."
"Well, I was fighting and..."
"Yeah right, like those guys could have touched you." Louise grumbled. "Anyway, we need to get out of here soon. There's no telling where we are, or if anyone else is after us."
"I already have an idea where we are, and I don't think we need to worry about anyone being after us." Saito said seriously as he sat down heavily. The swordsman propped his commandeered sword against the wall and sighed. "We need to stay here for a little while or at least until after sundown. Then I'm going to go out for a bit. I think I know where I can find us some help. I hope..."
"Well, where are we?" Louise demanded as she took a seat by his side.
"I'll need to confirm my suspicions a little later first. I won't be able to find out until after dark though. You girls stay away from the windows, just because there's no one after us doesn't mean we're necessarily safe." Saito instructed before leaning over into her lap.
"Right in front of the gathered nobility too." Osmond said turning the royal scepter over in his hands.
"By morning, there's going to be at least ten different men wanting to know who's next in line for the throne." The elderly bishop was saying. He hadn't even had time to change out of his official garments.
"And at least twenty gathering their armies." Duke Valliere noted clinically as he stared at the burn on the carpet where five people had vanished into thin air earlier that day. It was now taking the combined efforts of the Undine Knights and the Royal Musketeers to keep everyone at bay outside the chapel. Nobles were trying to use every last bit of influence they had to try to gain entry and be in on what was being discussed.
"But why did this happen?" Osmond said to himself.
"Isn't the more important question 'What do we do now'?" Duke Valliere said as he looked out the window at the castle courtyard. Servants and nobles alike were scurrying everywhere. Containing this news would have been impossible, and by now messengers were on their way to every neighboring kingdom. Tristain was leaderless. "Without the queen, civil war will be inevitable. It's been brewing for years. I guess I'd better prepare the queen's army."
"A problem I leave to you gentlemen." Osmond said as he continued his examination of the scepter. "In the meantime I am going to carry this back to the academy to study. Everything happened after Saito put his hand over the queen's on the scepter. I'm hoping it will give me some idea as to what happened."
The three men turned as the door to the chapel opened, allowing the roar of the crowd outside to filter in. Nobles were shouting at guards at not being allowed to enter with assurances that slights to their power and reputation would not go unpunished. Agnes and Guiche ignored them for the most part, and things were kept under control. However as the door closed behind the two young people entering the chapel, it was obvious the nobles were getting upset at the exception.
"What are you doing in here boy? The guards were supposed to keep everyone out." The duke growled at the newcomer.
"I am one of the guards sir." Malicorne countered as he escorted the young girl over to Osmond. "I thought an exception could be made for Miss Tiffania."
"What is it Malicorne?" Osmond asked patiently.
The duke rolled his eyes and threw his hands up in exasperation. "The kingdom is about to fall to pieces without its queen, armies are probably massing as we speak, and now children are making decisions about security on their own. Tell me, Master Malicorne, why is it this elf girl should be allowed to enter into these discussions. What reason, or should I say, what third reason do you have for interrupting us?"
Malicorne seemed to flinch at first, but with the duke's last barb turned to face him directly. The portly young man actually looked flushed with anger as he raised his voice. "Lady Tiffania is only here to see what happened to her friends. Unlike the rest of that lot out there she honestly cares about the queen as a person instead of merely what power she might grab in her absence."
"Now lad, it's alright I'm sure the duke is just under a lot of stress." Bishop Madolene chided gently in an attempt to placate the two men.
"No, it is not alright." Malicorne pressed. "Tiffania is always catching it from people because she's an elf or for whatever other reason and I'm tired of it. We're both worried about our friends and all he wants to do is look down on both of us. Tifa is the queen's cousin, she has every right to be here..."
Osmond glanced up at the bishop who was openly staring at him now. The two looked askance at the duke who was likewise looking back and forth between the two of them as their collective minds all started racing together. In unison the three men turned on a suddenly uncomfortable Malicorne who was after all not accustomed to such outbursts even in defense of a pretty girl. "Did you say 'cousin'?"
A/N: If memory serves I wrote Saito's scuffle with those ruffians after I'd had a bad bay and SERIOUSLY wanted to kick someone's tail. I kept imagining the target of my wrath getting his butt kicked. I'm so violent sometimes...